1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image browsing apparatus, and more particularly, to an image browsing apparatus capable of calculating color temperature of an image and browsing the image and/or an image database based on the color temperature, and a method of browsing an image and/or image database.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a color image is recognized by three factors, i.e., hue, saturation, and brightness. The word ‘color’ we use signifies the tone of color such as green and yellow. Features of the tone of color of an image, such as the spacious distribution and structural position of color in an image or dominant colors, are used as conditions of searching an image to be displayed.
Each color constituting an image makes an observer have different impressions. For instance, a red or yellow tone image produces a warm impression to an observer, and a blue or purple tone image, a cool impression. The extent of the impression of a color image that a human being perceives is called color temperature or correlated color temperature, which can be an important factor that defines what color is to be searched. In fact, when those who work in manufacturing companies or advertising agencies have to express an image of a product they wish to advertise, they may take a lot of time and effort in finding out a background image that fits the image of the product. For instance, if a background image is required for a propaganda poster for advertising newly developed beer, the related advertising agency may want cool impression of the Arctic ocean or warm impression of the Sunday set of the tropical regions according to an advertising concept. In this case, since the color temperature of an image can be used in searching a background image, it is possible to easily find images having similar impressions even if stored in an out of enormous image database. However, the most image data is generally classified only according to the physical characteristics of an image such as the spacious distribution of color, the structural position of color, and dominant colors. That is, the most image data does not include information on the quantified color temperature of an image. For this reason, it is difficult to search a desired image that is in accordance with an observer's likely feeling regarding an image such as warmth or coolness.